Interview
Hard-working Stephen Mangan talks about his new sitcom Hang Ups below. It starts on Channel 4 on August 8 at 10pm.
Explain a bit about the show – what’s Hang Ups all about?
Well they do say comedy is nearly all about timing, so jolly good show to Julian Dutton who, as the title below suggests, is performing a show about Dad's Army star John Le Mesurier just as the classic sitcom celebrates its fiftieth birthday. Dutton is well suited to the part.
You can expect a plethora of shows by comedians at the Edinburgh Fringe to be compared to Black Mirror this year, but this is the only one that is being covered by Rarely Asked Questions as far as we know. In I, Human Australia-based comic (and formerly London-based comic) Yianni explores the way that technology is taking us over. Is it our slave or are we its slave? We are promised an hour of analogue, human-written jokes on how humans and technology are changing each other. Get plugged in
American writer/storyteller/stand-up Sara Barron has written for Vanity Fair, published two essay collections, and has hosted the hit US storytelling show, The Moth. She now lives in the UK and is making her Edinburgh debut with For Worse, in which she skewers her husband, her child, WhatsApp, herself and, notably, a tweenage sex script she wrote way back in 1992. If you've heard her recent chat on Cariad Lloyd's Griefcast podcast you'll know she can talk for America, England and anywhere else that'll have her.
In 2015 I had one of those "why-haven't-I-heard-of-you-before?" moments when I saw Scott Bennett do a brilliantly crowdpleasing short set at the Edinburgh Fringe. The reason I hadn't heard of him was that he was based in the north of England – I'm a soft southerner – and he had only recently taken up stand-up comedy. He is clearly a natural though. There were flashes of Peter Kay, John Bishop and Jason Manford in his easily relatable routines about family life.
It's a fair bet that Irish comic Catherine Bohart is going to have a good Edinburgh. She has spent the last couple of years picking up plaudits in comedy compeitions. She was a finalist in the Leicester Mercury Comedy Festival Comedian Of The Year, the BBC New Comedy Awards and Funny Women and has written for Frankie Boyle’s New World Order, The News Quiz, The Mash Report and Newsjack.
If Who Do You Think You Are? doesn't come calling, why not go off and do it yourself? That is one of the premises of the new show from John Pendal. In We Are Family the dapper stand-up explores his family tree and discovers mutinies in the 1800s, arson in the 1900s and autism in the 2000s. He uses the results to try and answer life's big questions, such as, is it possible to get along with your dad after Brexit?
He can be a little bit oversharing on social media, he can sound a bit like David Brent onstage, but George Rigden has something. I'm not sure exactly what it is but I like it. He combines stories with music, but when he sings songs they aren't sweet and funny. He sings at the audience, not to them. Don't be fooled by the flowers he is holding in the picture here (unless there are thorns in them), there is something a little bit disturbing about him. But in a Good Way.
Mancunian comic Rachel Fairburn is no shy, retiring flower, she is more like a gobby, thorny rose bush. Her comedy is spikey . If you want attitude Fairburn has it. If you want jokes she's got them too. She is also half of the All Killa No Filla podcast with Kiri Pritchard-McLean which discusses serial killers.
You might recognise William Andrews from his brief appearances alongside Alan Partridge and in Him & Her. And if you like serious drama you may have spotted him in a straight role in Broadchurch. Or you may know him for the clip that went viral recently in which his son accidentally delivers an inspired poem about being stung by nettles.
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